Device management apparatus and device search method

ABSTRACT

In a technology for allowing accurate and easy search of a device which satisfies a request of a user from among a large number of devices present at various places, an area ID capable of uniquely identifying a target area of the device is registered in a storage section as information on the device. A device search request from the user includes an area condition for identifying an area in which exertion of an operation by the device is desired by the user as a search condition. A matching process section determines the device to be extracted by comparing the target area identified by the area ID of each device with the area condition included in the device search request.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a technology for allowing easy searchof a device which suits a purpose from among a large number of devicespresent at various places.

BACKGROUND ART

As a means for realizing a ubiquitous society, a sensor network receivesattention. The sensor network is a technology that disposes sensordevices each having a detection function and a communication function atvarious places and networks the sensor devices to thereby allow thecollection, management, and seamless use of sensing data (see PatentLiteratures 1 and 2). When the sensor network is implemented, it becomeseasy to quickly grasp a situation at every place from anywhere, andhence wide application of the sensor network to not only industrialfields such as a production site and physical distribution but alsofields related to social systems such as transportation and variousinfrastructures and living such as medical treatment and education isconsidered to be promising.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

-   -   PTL 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-300571    -   PTL 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-300572

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

The sensor network has an advantage that, as the number of sensors isincreased, detection performance (resolution, the type of detectableinformation, and the like) is enhanced. However, when the number ofchoices is extremely large, it becomes difficult to find a sensoroptimum for achievement of a purpose, and convenience for a user may bereduced. To cope with this, it is desired to provide a search mechanismwhich receives the request of the user (e.g., an area to be sensed anddesired information) and extracts the sensor that satisfies the requeston a system side.

However, the conventional system has the following problem. The requestof the user who uses the sensor network is usually made by designatingan area as a sensing target such as, e.g., a request that “I want toknow the congestion situation of Kyoto Station Platform No. 0”, while adatabase on the system side manages the installation place (or presenceplace) of the sensor inmost cases. However, the installation place ofthe sensor does not necessarily match the target area sensed by thesensor. That is, even if a monitoring camera is installed at “KyotoStation Platform No. 0”, the camera may monitor the arrival anddeparture of trains, a platform on the opposite side, or the situationat a ticket gate instead of Platform No. 0. Therefore, in the case ofthe conventional system, after candidates are extracted based on theinstallation place of the sensor (i.e., after sensors installed near asensing desired area are selected as candidates), the user oneself needsto check parameters such as the installation direction and range of eachsensor and determine whether or not information in the desired area canbe sensed.

Although the description has been given by using the sensor as anexample thus far, the same problem can arise in the case of the networkof a device such as an actuator (or a controller). This is because the“sensor” and the “actuator” are different from each other in that thesensor “detects (acquires) a state” and the actuator “changes a state”,but the “sensor” and the “actuator” are similar to each other in thatsome operation is performed on the target area in a predeterminedregion, and the installation place of the device does not necessarilymatch the target area.

The present invention has been achieved in view of the abovecircumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a technology forallowing accurate and easy search of a device which satisfies therequest of the user from among a large number of devices present atvarious places.

Solution to Problem

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention manages thetarget area of each device by using identification information (referredto as an “area ID” in the present invention) defined so as to be capableof uniquely identifying an area (a point, line, plane, or space), andallows search of the device based on whether or not the target area (notinstallation place) of the device matches the area desired by the user.The target area of the device is an area which is to have acause-and-effect relationship with the operation of the device. Thecause-and-effect relationship includes a cause-and-effect relationshipin which the output value of the device is determined according to thestate of the target area (sensing), and a cause-and-effect relationshipin which the state of the target area is determined by the output of thedevice (actuator).

Specifically, the present invention is a device management apparatusmanaging a plurality of devices present at different places including astorage section in which information on each device is registered, anacquisition section which acquires a device search request from a user,a matching process section which performs matching between a searchcondition included in the device search request and the information oneach device registered in the storage section, thereby extracting thedevice satisfying the search condition, and a search result presentationsection which presents an extraction result of the matching processsection to the user, wherein an area ID capable of uniquely identifyinga target area of the device is registered in the storage section as theinformation on the device, the device search request includes an areacondition for identifying an area in which exertion of an operation bythe device is desired by the user as the search condition, and thematching process section determines the device to be extracted bycomparing the target area identified by the area ID of each device withthe area condition included in the device search request.

Although it is assumed that various types of devices or devices havingdifferent owners coexist depending on the configuration or use of thedevice network, according to the configuration of the present invention,the “area ID” is registered as one of the information items on thedevice (hereinafter simply referred to as “device information”), and itis thereby possible to collectively manage the target areas of all ofthe devices. In addition, since the area ID is defined so as to becapable of uniquely identifying the target area, unlike the conventionalsystem, it is possible to represent the area serving as the target onwhich the operation is actually exerted by the device instead of theinstallation position of the device. Therefore, it becomes possible tosearch the device which covers the area desired by the user with highaccuracy. Note that the operation exerted on the target area by thedevice may be detection of the state of the target area or changing ofthe state of the target area.

The matching process section preferably calculates a degree of overlapbetween the target area identified by the area ID and the areaidentified by the area condition, and determines the device to beextracted based on magnitude of the degree of overlap. For example, byextracting the device having the degree of overlap larger than apredetermined value and extracting the predetermined number of devicesin descending order of the degree of overlap; it becomes possible topresent the device having a high possibility of matching the desire ofthe user as the search result. In the case where position informationindicative of an installation position of the device is registered inthe storage section as the information on the device, the matchingprocess section may narrow down the device serving as a candidate basedon the installation position of the device, and then execute theextraction based on the magnitude of the degree of overlap with thecandidate, obtained as a result of the narrowing down, serving as atarget. Since the calculation and evaluation of the degree of overlap ina three-dimensional space require a large calculation amount, when thescale of the network (the number of devices) is increased, theprocessing load of the matching may be increased. To cope with this, byperforming the narrowing down using the installation position whichrequires a small calculation amount first, it is possible to reduce theprocessing load of the matching and achieve a reduction in search time.

With regard to the device having a plurality of the target areas, aplurality of the area IDs corresponding to the plurality of the targetareas are preferably registered in the storage section. For example, amobile or scanning device and a camera capable of PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom)control correspond to the above device. Herein, with regard to thedevice, the target area of which the user can control, a controlparameter used to change the target area to the corresponding targetarea is preferably registered in the storage section in association witheach of the plurality of the area IDs and, further, when the matchingprocess section extracts the device which requires control for changingthe target area, the search result presentation section preferablypresents information on the control parameter for the device to the usertogether with the extraction result. With this, a use mode in which theuser (the user of the device) directly or indirectly controls the deviceto thereby sense the desired area or output information to the desiredarea is allowed, and the convenience of the system is thereby improved.

Note that the present invention can be regarded as the device managementapparatus having at least any of the above means, and can also beregarded as a device network system configured by the device managementapparatus and a plurality of the devices. In addition, the presentinvention can be regarded as a device search method including at leastany of the above processes, and can also be regarded as a program forcausing a computer to execute individual steps of the device searchmethod or a storage medium recording the program.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately andeasily search the device which satisfies the request of the user fromamong a large number of the devices present at various places.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view showing the configuration of a sensor network system;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of a sensor registration process;

FIG. 3 is a view schematically showing a sensing target area of asensor;

FIG. 4 is a view schematically showing an example of a data structure ofan area ID;

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining an example of specific use of a searchservice;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of a sensor search process; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of a calculation process of thedegree of overlap.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

<System Configuration>

With reference to FIG. 1, a description will be given of an example ofthe configuration of a sensor network system as an embodiment of adevice network system according to the present invention.

The sensor network system is configured by a sensor network 1 as a typeof a device network, and a sensor management apparatus 2 as a devicemanagement apparatus. The sensor network 1 is a network configured by alarge number of sensors 10 present at various places. The structure andcommunication system and the like of the network can be arbitrarilydesigned, and are not particularly limited. Each sensor 10 cancommunicate with the sensor management apparatus 2 via a wide areanetwork such as, e.g., the Internet or the like. The sensor managementapparatus 2 is a server apparatus which manages information on theindividual sensors 10 constituting the sensor network 1 and informationcollected from the individual sensors, and the like, and providesvarious services (device search is one of the services) for a user whodesires to use the sensor 10. The user can access the services providedby the sensor management apparatus 2 from a user terminal 3 through thewide area network such as the Internet or the like. Incidentally, all ofa large number of the sensors 10 constituting the sensor network 1 arenot necessarily owned by an administrator of the sensor managementapparatus 2, and many people and organizations such as individuals andbusiness entities other than the administrator can own or operate andmanage the sensors (hereinafter a person or an organization which ownsor operates and manages the sensor is referred to as a “sensorprovider”). Therefore, the sensor management apparatus 2 has a functionof registering a new sensor in the present system and a function ofchanging the information on the sensor as a function for the sensorprovider. In addition, although not described in detail in the presentembodiment, the sensor management apparatus 2 preferably has a functionof mediating between the sensor user and the sensor provider(check/mediation of a use condition and a provision condition, billingto the user and payment to the provider, and the like).

Each of the sensors 10 is a device for detecting (acquiring) the stateof a sensing target area, and any type of information to be sensed oroutputted, any detection method, and any detection means can be used.Examples thereof include an image sensor, a temperature sensor, ahumidity sensor, an illumination sensor, a force sensor, a sound sensor,an RFID sensor, an infrared sensor, an attitude sensor, a rain sensor, aradioactivity sensor, and a gas sensor. In addition, in the case whereone information item can be obtained by combining a plurality ofsensors, the plurality of sensors can be handled as one sensor in avirtual manner.

The sensor management apparatus 2 has functions such as a search requestacquisition section 20, an area ID determination section 21, a storagesection (database) 22, a matching process section 23, a search resultcreation section 24, and a sensor registration section 25. The sensormanagement apparatus 2 can be configured by a computer which includes aCPU, a main storage apparatus (memory), an auxiliary storage apparatus(HDD, SSD, or the like), a communication apparatus, an input apparatus,and a display apparatus in terms of hardware. Individual functionalblocks shown in FIG. 1 are embodied by loading a computer program storedin the auxiliary memory apparatus into the main storage apparatus andexecuting the program using the CPU. Note that the sensor managementapparatus 2 may be configured by a single computer or can also beconfigured by a plurality of computers which cooperate with each other.

As the user terminal 3, for example, a personal computer, a cellularphone, a smartphone, and a slate device can be used. Note that, in thepresent embodiment, an example in which the user performs sensor searchvia the Internet is shown, but a configuration may also be adopted inwhich the sensor management apparatus itself is operated by the user, ora part or all of the functions of the sensor management apparatus isimplemented on the side of the user terminal 3. As a terminal 4 of thesensor provider, for example, the personal computer, the cellular phone,the smartphone, and the slate device can be used.

<Sensor Registration>

With reference to FIGS. 2 to 4, an example of a sensor registrationprocess will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of thesensor registration process executed in the sensor management apparatus2, FIG. 3 is a view schematically showing a sensing target area of thesensor, and FIG. 4 is a view schematically showing an example of a datastructure of an area ID. Herein, as an example of the sensor, amonitoring camera having a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) function is used.

The sensor (monitoring camera) provider can access a sensor registrationservice of the sensor management apparatus 2 by using the terminal 4 viathe network. The sensor registration section 25 presents a screen (notshown) to which information required to register the sensor is inputted,and asks the provider to input the information (Step S20). Theinformation required to register the sensor includes information on theprovider (e.g., name or denomination of the provider), information onthe sensor (e.g., the type, ability, installation position, target area,and network address of the sensor), and provision conditions (e.g., ause purpose, available time, and a use charge). Note that, among theinformation items on the sensor, manual inputting of the informationitem which can be automatically obtained from the sensor by the providercan be omitted. For example, coordinates of the installation positionmay be obtained from the sensor in the case of the sensor having a GPS(Global Positioning System) and, in the case where various informationitems such as the installation position, the installation direction(angle), and the ability are stored in the internal memory of thesensor, these information items may be read from the sensor.

Next, the area ID determination section 21 determines the area ID of thesensor based on the information on the target area acquired in Step S20(Step S21). The area ID is identification information for uniquelyidentifying the sensing target area of the sensor. The target area isrepresented by a point, a line, a plane, or a space (i.e., 0 tothree-dimensional areas). The number of dimensions of the target area isappropriately set according to the type of the sensor and the like.

In the case of a camera, as shown in FIG. 3, the sensing target area(shooting range) can be defined with a pentahedron having five points A0to A4 as vertexes. For example, in the case where information items suchas the installation position (A0) of the camera, the installation height(h) of the camera, the direction (angle) of the camera, and the angle ofview of the camera are obtained in Step S20, the coordinates A1 to A4can be calculated geometrically from the field of view and installationsurface of the camera. Note that, in the case where it is not proper toinclude the installation surface in the target area (the case where theinstallation surface is at a long distance or infinity, the case whereonly a subject or wall surface is included in the angle of view, or thelike), the provider is asked to input a shooting distance (a distancefrom the camera in an optical axis direction) or the like in Step S20,and the target area may be defined with a quadrangular pyramid havingthe installation position of the camera (A0) as a vertex and theshooting distance as the height. Alternatively, the shooting range maybe calculated by allowing the provider oneself to designate thecoordinates of the vertexes A0 to A4, measuring the shooting range usinga distance sensor provided in the camera, or analyzing an image obtainedusing the camera.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the area ID determined by the area IDdetermination section 21. In the present embodiment, the target area isdefined with the polyhedron, and the area ID includes data streamsindicative of the coordinates of the vertexes of the polyhedron. Theexample of FIG. 4 shows data having a structure in whichthree-dimensional coordinate values (x, y, z) of the individual vertexesA0, A1, A2, A3, A4 . . . are successively described. Since at least fourpoints are required in order to express the three-dimensional space(polyhedron), the coordinate values of four points are essential amongdata items of the area ID, and a data item on the fifth or subsequentpoint is optional. The value of each point may be an absolute coordinateor a relative coordinate. In addition, the value of each point may berepresented by latitude/longitude/height instead of the xyz coordinates,and may also be represented by a standard format of the GPS. In the casewhere the target area is three-dimensional (space), the coordinatevalues of four points are essential in the area ID. However, thecoordinate values of at least three points may be appropriately requiredin the case where the target area is two-dimensional (plane), thecoordinate values of at least two points may be appropriately requiredin the case where the target area is one-dimensional (line), and thecoordinate value of only one point may be appropriately required in thecase where the target area is zero-dimensional (point).

When the area ID is determined, the sensor registration section 25registers the various information items received in Step S20 and thearea ID in the storage section 22 (Step S22). With this, the sensorregistration process is completed.

In the case of the sensor capable of changing the target area such as amobile sensor or a movable sensor, the area ID may be determined foreach of the target areas which can be adopted by the sensor, and aplurality of the area IDs may be appropriately registered in the storagesection 22. In this case, a control parameter of the sensor used tochange the target area may be appropriately registered in the storagesection 22 together with the area ID. For example, in the case of thecamera capable of PTZ control, parameters of the pan, tilt, and zoom andthe like and the area IDs corresponding to the individual parameters areregistered together.

<Sensor Search>

Next, a description will be given of a sensor search service provided bythe sensor management apparatus 2. The sensor search service is aservice for facilitating search of the sensor optimum for theachievement of the purpose from among a large number of the sensors 10constituting the sensor network 1 by the user. First, an example ofspecific use of the search service will be described by using FIG. 5.

When the user accesses the sensor search service by using the userterminal 3, a search condition input screen shown in FIG. 5 (a) isdisplayed. In this screen, it is possible to input the search condition(search purpose) in the form of a free sentence such as, e.g., “I wantto know a congestion situation in an area within 100 m from KyotoStation at 6 PM”. FIG. 5(b) shows another example of the searchcondition input screen. In the case of this screen, the area, time, andcontent are inputted indifferent boxes. When a search button is pressed,a search request is transmitted to the sensor management apparatus 2from the user terminal 3, and a search process (matching process) isexecuted in the sensor management apparatus 2. The detail of the searchprocess will be described later.

FIG. 5(c) shows an example of a search result screen returned from thesensor management apparatus 2. As a means for grasping the congestionsituation of a road, for example, a traffic congestion sensor, aninfrared beacon, an image sensor (camera), and an entry record of ETCare assumed. In the sensor search service, all of the sensors which maysatisfy the search condition inputted by the user are searched, and thesensors are displayed in list form in descending order of the degree ofmatching with the search condition. With regard to the display order inthe list, a configuration may be adopted in which the user can sort thelist according to a condition designated by the user such as the type ofthe sensor or the descending or ascending order of the charge. Inaddition, the sensor list also displays information such asspecifications of each sensor, a provision condition, a use charge, andthe provider of the sensor on an as needed basis. The user looks at thelist presented as the search result, and can select the sensor to beused while weighing the sensors.

As can be seen from the example of FIG. 3, the installation position (orthe presence position) of the sensor 10 does not necessarily match thetarget area sensed by the sensor 10. To cope with this, in the sensorsearch service of the present system, the sensor search can be performedby comparing an area condition inputted by the user with the target areaof the sensor. With this, it is possible to extract the sensor whichsuits the purpose and desire of the user with high accuracy. Inaddition, a purpose achievement means which is not envisioned by theuser is listed (recommended), and hence the use opportunity of the useris expected to be increased.

(Retrieval Process Flow)

FIG. 6 shows the flow of the sensor search process by the sensormanagement apparatus 2.

First, the search request acquisition section 20 acquires the searchrequest from the user terminal 3 (Step S60). Subsequently, the area IDdetermination section 21 converts the area condition (information foridentifying the area of which sensing is desired by the user) includedin the search request to the area ID (Step S61). The definition of thearea ID and the data structure are the same as those described above.The area condition is converted to the area ID in order to unify themanagement of the area information in the matching process describedlater. Note that, e.g., in the case where the unification is notnecessary, Step S61 may be omitted. In addition, in the case where theuser designates the area ID as the area condition, Step S61 can also beomitted.

Next, the matching process section 23 determines a region where sensorsearch is performed based on the area condition designated by the user(Step S62). For example, the desired area designated as the areacondition and its surroundings L [m] may be determined as a searchregion. The value of L as the margin may be appropriately set accordingto the scale of the sensor network and the type of the sensor(detectable distance) and the like. Subsequently, in Step S63, thematching process section 23 selects, as search candidates, only thesensors installed in the search region determined in Step S62 from amongall of the sensors registered in the storage section 22. With this, itis possible to significantly narrow down the number of targets subjectedto calculation/evaluation of the degree of overlap in the subsequentstage, and reduce a processing load. Note that, e.g., in the case wherethe number of sensors constituting the sensor network is not that large,Step S62 may be omitted and all of the sensors may be determined as thesearch candidates.

The matching process section 23 performs the following process on eachof the sensors selected as the candidate in Step S63. First, thematching process section 23 reads the area ID of the sensor from thestorage section 22 (Step S64), and on the basis of the area ID of thissensor and the area ID obtained in Step S61, calculates the degree ofoverlap between the sensing target area of the sensor and the sensingdesired area designated by the user (Step S65).

FIG. 7 shows an example of the calculation process of the degree ofoverlap in Step S65. The area designated by the user (sensing desiredarea) is referred to as an “area 1”, and the sensing target area of eachsensor is referred to as an “area 2”. The matching process section 23sets a reference points in the area 1 at regular intervals so as tocover the entire area 1 (Step S70). The number of reference points a maybe appropriately set according to the type of the sensor (resolution)and the size of the area and the like, and the number of referencepoints a may be set to, e.g., about several tens to several hundreds.The matching process section 23 determines whether or not each referencepoint is also included in the area 2, and counts the number b ofreference points included in the area 2 (i.e., reference points includedin both of the area 1 and area 2) (Steps S71 to S73). Subsequently, thematching process section 23 calculates the ratio of the reference pointincluded in the area 1 and the area 2, i.e., the value of b/a as thedegree of overlap of the sensing target area of the sensor on thesensing desired area (Step S74).

Returning to Step S66 of FIG. 6, the matching process section 23determines whether or not the degree of overlap is not less than apredetermined threshold value, and sets a flag in the sensor when thedegree of overlap is not less than the threshold value (Step S67). Thethreshold value can be arbitrarily set and, in the present embodiment,the threshold value is set to 0.5 as an example. (i.e., the sensor whichcovers 50% or more of the sensing desired area is extracted.)

The calculation/evaluation process of the degree of overlap in Steps S64to S67 described above is executed on each sensor selected as thecandidate in Step S63 (Loop R1). In addition, in the case of the sensorin which a plurality of the area IDs are set (the sensor capable ofchanging the target area), the calculation/evaluation process of thedegree of overlap is executed on each area ID (Loop R2).

After the calculation/evaluation of the degree of overlap of all of thearea IDs of all of the candidates is ended, the search result creationsection 24 reads information on the sensor in which the flag is set fromthe storage section 22, creates the sensor list, and transmits thesensor list to the user terminal 3 (Step S68). As described above, inthe sensor list, the information on each extracted sensor is described.In the case where it is necessary to change the sensing target area ofthe sensor in order to sense the desired area, a control parameter forthe operation is also described in the sensor list. The user candetermine which sensor is to be used and how the sensor is used in orderto acquire desired information through comparison by looking at the listof the search result displayed on the user terminal 3.

Advantage of the Present Embodiment

According to the configuration of the present embodiment describedabove, the “area ID” is registered as one of the information items onthe sensor, and it is thereby possible to manage the sensing targetareas of all of the sensors collectively. In addition, since the area IDis defined so as to be capable of uniquely identifying the target area,unlike the conventional system, it is possible to represent the areaserving as an actual detection target instead of the installationposition of the sensor. Therefore, it becomes possible to search thesensor which covers the area desired by the user with high accuracy.

In addition, since the sensor is extracted by evaluating the magnitudeof the degree of overlap between the area desired by the user and thesensing target area of the sensor, it becomes possible to present thesensor having a high possibility of matching the desire of the user asthe search result. Further, by performing rough narrowing down of thecandidate based on the installation position which requires a smallcalculation amount before the calculation/evaluation process of thedegree of overlap is performed, it is possible to reduce the totalprocessing load and achieve a reduction in search time.

Further, in the case where the sensing of the desired area is allowed bycontrolling the sensor, since the information on the control parameterof the sensor is also presented to the user, a use mode in which theuser directly or indirectly controls the sensor to sense the desiredarea is allowed, and the convenience of the system is thereby improved.

Note that the above-described embodiment shows a specific example of thepresent invention, and the scope of the present invention is notintended to be limited to the specific example. For example, althoughthe above-described embodiment describes the example in which thepresent invention is applied to the sensor network system, it is alsopossible to apply the present invention to the device network systemsincluding the devices other than the sensor (e.g., an actuator,controller, robot, light fixture, digital signage, and display). This isbecause each of these devices is also similar to the sensor in that theoperation is exerted on the predetermined target area and the targetarea does not necessarily match the installation position of the deviceso that the same problem as that of the case of the sensor arises. Inaddition, in the above-described embodiment (FIG. 7), although theoverlap is evaluated by using the ratio of the reference point includedin both of the area 1 and the area 2, the overlap between the two areasmay also be evaluated by using other algorithms. Alternatively, insteadof the overlap, it is also possible to evaluate an inclusionrelationship, i.e., whether or not the sensing target area of the sensorincludes the desired area of the user.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   1: sensor network-   2: sensor management apparatus-   3: user terminal-   4: terminal of sensor provider-   10: sensor-   20: search request acquisition section-   21: area ID determination section-   22: storage section-   23: matching process section-   24: search result creation section-   25: sensor registration section

The invention claimed is:
 1. A device management apparatus managing aplurality of devices located at different places, comprising: a storagesection in which information about each device is registered; anacquisition section which performs matching between a search conditionincluded in the device search request and the information on each deviceregistered in the storage section, thereby extracting each devicesatisfying the search condition; and a search result presentationsection which presents an extraction result of the matching processsection to a user, wherein an area ID capable of uniquely identifying atarget area of each device is registered in the storage section as theinformation about the device, the device search request includes an areacondition for identifying an area in which exertion of an operation by adevice is desired by the user as the search condition, the matchingprocess section determines each device to be extracted by comparing thetarget area identified by the area ID of each device with the areacondition included in the device search request, the device managementapparatus is at least one computer that comprises at least one processorand at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium, and the areaID includes data streams indicative of coordinates of a geographicposition of the target area.
 2. The device management apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the matching process section calculates adegree of overlap between the target area identified by the area ID andthe area identified by the area condition, and determines the device tobe extracted based on magnitude of the degree of overlap.
 3. The devicemanagement apparatus according to claim 2, wherein position informationindicative of an installation position of a device is registered in thestorage section as the information about each device, and the matchingprocess section narrows down devices serving as a candidate based on theinstallation position of each device, and then executes the extractionbased on the magnitude of the degree of overlap with the candidate,obtained as a result of the narrowing down, serving as a target.
 4. Thedevice management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, with regardto a device having a plurality of the target areas, a plurality of thearea IDs corresponding to the plurality of the target areas areregistered in the storage section.
 5. The device management apparatusaccording to claim 4, wherein, with regard to the device having aplurality of the target areas, the target area of which the user cancontrol, a control parameter used to change the target area to thecorresponding target area is registered in the storage section, inassociation with each of the plurality of the area IDs.
 6. The devicemanagement apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, when the matchingprocess section extracts a device which requires control for changingthe target area, the search result presentation section presentsinformation about the control parameter for the device to the usertogether with the extraction result.
 7. A device search method forsearching a device satisfying a request condition from among a pluralityof devices present at different places, the method causing a computerincluding a storage section in which information about each device isregistered to execute: acquiring a device search request from a user;performing matching between a search condition included in the devicesearch request and the information about each device registered in thestorage section, thereby extracting each device satisfying the searchcondition; and presenting an extraction result of the matching to theuser, wherein an area ID capable of uniquely identifying a target areaof each device is registered in the storage section as the informationabout the device, the device search request includes an area conditionfor identifying an area in which exertion of an operation by a device isdesired by the user as the search condition, the device to be extractedis determined by comparing the target area identified by the area ID ofeach device with the area condition included in the device searchrequest in the matching, and the area ID includes data streamsindicative of coordinates of a geographic position of the target area.8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a programfor causing a computer to execute a device search method for searching adevice satisfying a request condition from among a plurality of devicespresent at different places, the computer including a storage section inwhich information about each device is registered, the method causingthe computer to execute: acquiring a device search request from a user;performing matching between a search condition included in the devicesearch request and the information about each device registered in thestorage section, thereby extracting each device satisfying the searchcondition; and presenting an extraction result of the matching to theuser, wherein an area ID capable of uniquely identifying a target areaof each device is registered in the storage section as the informationabout the device, the device search request includes an area conditionfor identifying an area in which exertion of an operation by a device isdesired by the user as the search condition, the device to be extractedis determined by comparing the target area identified by the area ID ofeach device with the area condition included in the device searchrequest in the matching, and the area ID includes data streamsindicative of coordinates of a geographic position of the target area.9. The device management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, withregard to the device having a plurality of the target areas, a pluralityof the area IDs corresponding to the plurality of the target areas areregistered in the storage section.
 10. The device management apparatusaccording to claim 3, wherein, with regard to the device having aplurality of the target areas, a plurality of the area IDs correspondingto the plurality of the target areas are registered in the storagesection.